You're my wife, don't doubt it!

"Yao Yao..." the kind-faced old lady called out.

In the sweltering summer heat, Xiao Yao felt as if he had been drenched in ice water from head to toe: he remembered that he had clearly locked the door.

Shen Tianyun swiftly shook off his arm, put her feet off the sofa, and fumbled for her slippers on the floor: "Grandma..."

"This is my classmate, Shen Tian..." Xiao Yao stammered as he introduced him.

Grandma's expression was more of a mix of surprise and delight: "You guys play, you guys play."

As she spoke, she hurriedly left the room.

An awkward atmosphere filled the air.

“Great-grandmother… isn’t as uncaring as you say.” Shen Tianyun finally broke the silence: “She’s so happy to see you’ve made friends.”

"Um……"

"What are you daydreaming about?" Shen Tianyun nudged Xiao Yao with displeasure. "What are you thinking about now?"

“You said…” Xiao Yao put down the tablet in his hand: “The Three-Body Problem didn’t exist in 2004, right?”

"Yeah, what's wrong?" Shen Tianyun asked, puzzled.

"It's nothing, I was just thinking about it."

Chapter 8 Repeating a Grade

Although Grandma was pleased that Xiao Yao brought his female classmate home to play, she wouldn't condone them spending the night together.

So here's the problem: since Shen Tianyun can't leave Xiao Yao's room, meaning she can't walk out and leave Xiao Yao's house from the photo booth in front of her grandmother.

Xiao Yao accompanied Shen Tianyun to watch a show all night. Around ten o'clock, Grandma started coughing loudly outside the door, pacing back and forth, and making a commotion by swiping a broom everywhere.

Just as the two were frantically searching for their way in the room, Old Mrs. Jin came to their rescue.

After telling Shen Tianyun to go home early and not to worry her mother, Grandma happily went to Grandma Jin's house to play cards.

No sooner had Grandma left than Shen Tianyun slipped into the wardrobe.

After Xiao Yao finished washing up, he sat on the sofa and packed his schoolbag when he felt something poke his bottom.

Ah, this square thing, Shen Tianyun once called it something like "flat panel" or "panel," it's what she uses to watch TV dramas. A crystal-clear glass teardrop is attached to the hanging cord in the corner: this teardrop is quite long, almost the length of two little fingers, and it has a light blue tint under the light, it's very pretty.

Xiao Yao felt it was better to return this to Shen Tianyun as soon as possible, otherwise, not only would the machine break, but the glass ball itself would also be a problem.

He knocked on the cabinet door, waited a while and when no one answered, he opened the cabinet door and went inside.

Shen Tianyun wasn't in the room, and the lights weren't on. Xiao Yao used the moonlight to put the machine on the table and prepared to leave quietly.

However, the layout of this room was ultimately different from his own.

Xiao Yao turned around and kicked a chair with wheels underneath. The chair moved and crashed into a bookshelf in the corner.

He hurriedly went up to steady the bookshelf. Fortunately, the bookshelf was full of plush toys and not many books. Only one book fell from the top of the bookshelf to the ground, stirring up a cloud of dust.

Xiao Yao picked up the book and discovered it was a beautiful photo album. He pulled it out of the cover by the spine, and surprisingly, there was a small combination lock on the other side.

It's 2034 already, do we still need physical photo albums?

Without thinking much, Xiao Yao subconsciously started turning the password.

000000? No. 888888? No. 123456? Still no.

"This lock that falls off with a single pull, is it really equipped with a password?" Xiao Yao thought to himself, amused.

As for birthdays, I don't know Shen Jie's birthday yet, and I haven't told Shen Tianyun's either, only...

880630, click, the lock is open.

Xiao Yao was taken aback.

"How much does he love me?" Xiao Yao said casually, then scratched the tip of his nose.

This is Shen Tianyun's photo album from her childhood, and it seems that all the photos were taken on important holidays.

Birthday, Christmas, Chinese New Year, birthday, Christmas, Chinese New Year, the chubby girl with the round face gradually grew into a little girl who was half a person's height, graceful and elegant.

The man beside her hadn't changed much, but the thought that he was the same man made Xiao Yao feel that things had changed quite a bit.

"A boy changes a lot as he grows up, and I'm getting more and more handsome."

Xiao Yao actually hoped to see Shen Jie in the photos, but she was never in any of them.

This photo album should perhaps be called "Comrade Shen Jie in Poland".

As Xiao Yao flipped through the album, he found a small velvet bag tucked inside, its opening tied with a silk cord.

Xiao Yao untied the silk rope and took out another glass droplet from the bag. It looked very similar to the previous one, except that it had a long, thin tail.

I thought it was jewelry.

Judging from the photos here, these two glass droplets are Christmas gifts from my future self to Shen Tianyun. They are a pair, and both Shen Tianyun and I are smiling happily in the photos.

Xiao Yao casually pinched the tail of the glass droplet and twirled it, then turned to the next page.

Surprisingly, there was no photo on this page, only a folded piece of paper.

But Shen Tianyun was only about 10 years old when she got here? There are still many blank pages at the back of the album.

He picked up the graph paper with a puzzled look. It had a child's crooked handwriting on it, like an essay.

Christmas

When the swallows came, Dad was away on a business trip and wouldn't be back for a very long time. I asked Mom if a very long time meant nine days. Mom didn't answer me.

It started raining, and Dad didn't come. I asked Mom why Dad hadn't come yet, since it had been so long. Mom got angry and didn't answer me.

The leaves on the tree have turned yellow, but Dad hasn't come. I asked Mom, "It's been so long, why hasn't Dad come yet?" Mom cried again and didn't answer me.

The wind started to get cold, and Dad hadn't come. I asked Snowflake, "It's been so long, why hasn't Dad come yet?" Snowflake said, "Santa Claus knows when Dad will come."

I love Santa Claus the most; he brings me the gift I want most every year.

The snow melted, the grass turned green, the swallows came, but Santa Claus didn't come.

……

Snapped--

A drop of water fell onto the graph paper, spreading and blurring the surrounding writing.

At the same time, the glass droplet that had been held tightly suddenly shattered and broke into powder.

Footsteps approached from outside the door, coming up the stairs.

Xiao Yao wiped his eyes, hurriedly poured the glass powder back into the velvet bag, tied it tightly, put the essay back in its place, locked the photo album again, and put the album back on the bookshelf.

The door opened and the light came on.

Then came the girl's gasp.

"Why didn't you turn on the lights when you got here?!" Shen Tianyun entered the room with her hair still wet. "Who are you trying to scare to death?!"

"I'll just bring this over for you. Put it down and leave." Xiao Yao pointed to the machine on the table, trying to steady his breathing.

"Oh, it's okay, I don't need it tonight." Shen Tianyun picked up a hair dryer and plugged it into the power strip.

"Well then, I'll head back first. You should get some sleep." Xiao Yao scratched his head. "Um, that glass bead, don't leave it hanging there. It's quite fragile."

“It’s alright, even the Lupus Tear Gun can’t break it. My dad taught me how to do that.” Shen Tianyun picked up the machine, held the glass droplet up to the light, and stared at it intently.

--split line--

That night, Xiao Yao didn't sleep well, tossing and turning, trying to figure out what that short essay really meant.

He wanted nothing more than to get up, kick open the wardrobe door, pull Shen Tianyun up, and interrogate her to find out where her father had gone.

However, when he thought of the "Tear of Lupus" that he had broken, he didn't know where to begin asking.

It wasn't until Monday morning that Xiao Yao realized he hadn't written a single word of his weekend homework.

Not only that, he also left his bicycle at school on Friday instead of riding it home.

Although the distance was only a few kilometers, Xiao Yao was still late after running there.

Then, because I forgot to wear my school badge, the student council officers at the gate wrote down my name.

It was a bright and sunny day, with the morning sun shining through half the corridor, but it couldn't brighten Xiao Yao's mood.

This was especially true when he saw the homeroom teacher standing at the door of the morning reading classroom, arms crossed and a serious expression on his face.

The homeroom teacher, Mr. Yao, is in his early thirties and was transferred from another high school. He is said to be the youngest special-grade teacher in nearly thirty years. In theory, a teacher of his level should be teaching graduating classes of senior high school students. For some reason, the school arranged for him to teach Xiao Yao's class, which had very average grades.

Nevertheless, this person still demonstrated admirable work enthusiasm and high professional ethics, one of the hallmarks of which was his unwavering commitment to Xiao Yao.

Following behind Teacher Yao, looking at his sparse hair that didn't suit his age, Xiao Yao occasionally felt guilty. But usually, this feeling would disappear after the reprimand was over.

"Oh, the great talent has arrived?" As soon as Xiao Yao followed Teacher Yao into the office, Teacher Yuan, who taught Chinese, greeted him cheerfully: "When will you let me read your new work to you?"

This wasn't meant to be sarcastic: Teacher Yuan genuinely admires Xiao Yao.

“Teacher Yuan, please don’t praise him so much,” Teacher Yao sighed. “These days, if a person is only good at literature and has only a high school diploma, he will only be buried in society. It’s such a pity.”

Ms. Yuan and Xiao Yao exchanged a glance and said nothing more, while Ms. Yao returned to her workstation and began grading math homework.